Paper Stars
by Dagas Isa
Summary: Kairi likes her life on Destiny Islands, but at one time of the year, she longs to recapture happy memories. A KH Christmasish fic!


**Paper Stars**

Seasons in Destiny Islands passed subtly. If other places knew summer and spring, fall and winter and the fading and growing of days and night, Destiny Islands knew none of these. Perpetual summer and twelve hours of sun reigned in the isles; however, there were times when the heat subsided slightly and night visited longer. To regale this season and light the darkness, the islanders decorated everything: buildings and trees with thousands of tiny lights.

Merry songs pierced the air, telling the tales of a guiding star while islanders stringed lights along the pathways. Merchants and craftsman shouted, peddling their wares to give as gifts to loved ones. The smiles and joys of the seasoned warmed what the sun would not, the hearts of every living soul. Of all those who celebrated the event, only one held within her heart the dropping temperature.

Kairi never remembered anything of her hometown or her family. The lines of an old woman's face remained indelible, but something about this time of year and the cooling weather drew vague impressions of her other life While Sora and Riku stringed lights with the others, Kairi chose to stay inside with her paper and scissors. Many wondered about the falling girl's purpose in staying inside during the seasons; most assumed that her world had nothing like Christmas, and pitied the young girl.

Her skillful hands folded paper for cutting. The scissors she held sliced precise curves and angles into the white surface, leaving little scraps of paper to scatter across the floor. The end product looked purposefully mutilated, and these folded sheets she set aside to start on a new one. So Kairi would spend her afternoons until the holiday, sitting at the table, folding, cutting, and setting aside without unnecessary rest. The normally sweet face wrinkled into concentration until her adoptive parents wondered if they needed to get her a potion or a psychiatrist. Finally, she swept aside all of her creations and took them to the privacy of her room.

Of course, her best friends noticed her strange behaviors, and wondered why.

Well, more than wondered, as men of action, they concocted a plan. So, that afternoon, as Kairi made her predicted retreat to her room, in her arms, a shoe box of white wedges, and a roll of tape. Sora and Riku were not the masters of stealth as they walked into the unlocked door of Kairi's house, but Kairi, her mind on other things and inwardly ready to share her secret. When they followed her up the stairs, oversized shoes alerted her and gave her times to perfect her post, contemplative over the box, scraps of paper readied for the revelation.

"Come on in!" Kairi said, falsely cheerful when the door finally creaked open. Bashful, Sora and Riku entered to that scene Kairi prepared for them. "I bet you want to know what I'm doing?"

The nods in unison confirmed their desire to know what happened.

Kairi held up the first wedge that came to mind. With utmost care, she slipped her fingers under the edges and unfurled her creation. "It's a snowflake." Melancholy tinged her voice. "I don't remember much about my hometown, but I remember that this time of year, snow would fall."

"Snow?" Sora thought he remembered the concept from school, but the reality eluded him.

Patches of white covered her room as Kairi revealed more of her snowflakes, "The temperature would get cold, and snow, little white flakes would fall and coat everything in white." Over the window, on the walls, even up to the ceiling, she taped her paper creations and transformed her room into a beautiful white scene. "I remember it being so beautiful and playing in it. So this time of year, with everyone so happy, I sort of remember all those happy times, and I want to remember more." When emotion choked her to the point of barely breathing, Kairi stopped, only to discover Sora and Riku slinging arms over her shoulders.

"I think I understand." Riku said slowly. "I guess this world is usually so different from your other world that you can forget, but this time of year you want to go back?"

Kairi nodded then shook her head. "No, I'm happy here, I think I could always be. I do miss the snow though, and I want to play in the snow one more time." She looked around at the beautiful room which was now covered in multitudes of snowflakes, and everyone fell into silence.

Sora spoke to fill in the lack of noise. "It sounds pretty."

"Yeah pretty, but you know . . . " Kairi said, spinning around to examine her handiwork, "I think this room is missing something, maybe . . . I could decorate this place with the lights from the festival."

It might have been Kairi's imagination, but Sora's face lit up like the streets outside. "There has to be extra light somewhere. We could string them up along the ceiling maybe . . . "

The snow alone was beautiful, like wisps of past happiness, but together with the lights of the present, Kairi could understand Sora's excitement for she was ready to join the islanders in their merriment.

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Merry Christmas! This is a little gift for Ginger Ninja. So here you go, Christmas on Destiny Islands. 


End file.
